Erwin Olaf (Dutch)

Though the adolescents in the photographs in Fall (2008) have the stylised perfection so characteristic of Olaf’s work, they are not perfect examples of our current ideal of beauty. Their curious expressions are determined to a large extent by the fact that the images were taken as they were blinking. This makes it unclear what the models are actually feeling, what their real emotions are. The combination with still lifes of flowers and the title of the series highlight what may very well be the key theme of Fall – the transient nature of beauty.
The images in Grief (2007) raise all kinds of questions. We see people, some of them crying, others staring out through the windows of a 1960s interior. What has happened? What has befallen these people? The subject of Hope (2005) and Rain (2004) is the American stereotype. In almost surreal Technicolor settings we see stereotypical figures like a boy scout, cheerleaders and a housewife, often with an apathetic look in their eyes that raises more questions than the picture can answer. There is something endearing about the figures who populate these photographs, as if they were completely at a loss, about to beg us for answers.
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